Abstract
A series of N10-substituted acridone-2-carboxamide derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their potent anti-cancer agents targeting AKT kinase. In vitro cytotoxicity activity of the target compounds was tested against breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231). Among the tested compounds, four compounds (7f, 8d, 8e, and 8f) exhibited promising anti-cancer activity against both cancer cell lines. Notably, compound 8f demonstrated the highest activity against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 at IC50 values of 4.72 and 5.53 μM, respectively. In vitro AKT kinase activity revealed that compounds 7f and 8f were the most potent AKT inhibitors with IC50 values of 5.38 and 6.90 μM, respectively. In addition, the quantitative ELISA method of testing confirmed that compound 8f effectively inhibited cell proliferation by suppressing the activation of p-AKT Ser473. Furthermore, molecular docking studies revealed that compound 8f can bind well to the active site of the AKT enzyme. The in silico ADME studies suggested that all synthesized molecules showed good oral bioavailability with a low-toxicity profile and can be used for further optimization as AKT kinase inhibitors in the treatment of breast cancer.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data used to support the findings of this study are included within the manuscript.
References
Ahua KM, Ioset JR, Ransijn A et al (2004) Antileishmanial and antifungal acridone derivatives from the roots of Thamnosma rhodesica. Phytochemistry 65:963–968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phytochem.2003.12.020
Almerico AM, Tutone M, Lauria A (2008) Docking and multivariate methods to explore HIV-1 drug-resistance: a comparative analysis. J Comput Aided Mol Des. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10822-008-9186-7
Babu YR, Bhagavanraju M, Reddy GD et al (2014) Design and synthesis of quinazolinone tagged acridones as cytotoxic agents and their effects on EGFR tyrosine kinase. Arch Pharm (weinheim) 347:624–634. https://doi.org/10.1002/ardp.201400065
Belmont P, Bosson J, Godet T, Tiano M (2007) Acridine and acridone derivatives, anticancer properties and synthetic methods: where are we now? Anticancer Agents Med Chem 7:139–169. https://doi.org/10.2174/187152007780058669
Belmont P, Dorange I (2008) Acridine/acridone: a simple scaffold with a wide range of application in oncology. Expert Opin Ther Pat 18:1211–1224
Chen J, Wang Y, Zhao D et al (2021) Chrysin serves as a novel inhibitor of DGKα/FAK interaction to suppress the malignancy of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Acta Pharm Sin B 11:143–155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2020.07.011
Chen YL, Lu CM, Chen IL et al (2002) Synthesis and antiinflammatory evaluation of 9-anilinoacridine and 9-phenoxyacridine derivatives. J Med Chem 45:4689–4694. https://doi.org/10.1021/jm020102v
Chuang CH, Cheng TC, Leu YL et al (2015) Discovery of akt kinase inhibitors through structure-based virtual screening and their evaluation as potential anticancer agents. Int J Mol Sci 16:3202–3212. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms16023202
Chukaew A, Ponglimanont C, Karalai C et al (2008) Potential anti-allergic acridone alkaloids from the roots of Atalantia monophylla. Phytochemistry 69:2616–2620
Cui Z, Li X, Li L et al (2016) Design, synthesis and evaluation of acridine derivatives as multi-target Src and MEK kinase inhibitors for anti-tumor treatment. Bioorg Med Chem 24:261–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2015.12.011
Daina A, Michielin O, Zoete V (2017) SwissADME: a free web tool to evaluate pharmacokinetics, drug-likeness and medicinal chemistry friendliness of small molecules. Sci Rep 7:42717. https://doi.org/10.1038/SREP42717
Dallakyan S, Olson AJ (2015) Small-molecule library screening by docking with PyRx. Methods Mol Biol 1263:243–250. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2269-7_19
Drwal MN, Banerjee P, Dunkel M et al (2014) ProTox: a web server for the in silico prediction of rodent oral toxicity. Nucleic Acids Res 42:53–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gku401
Gensicka-Kowalewska M, Cholewiński G, Dzierzbicka K (2017) Recent developments in the synthesis and biological activity of acridine/acridone analogues. RSC Adv 7:15776–15804. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ra01026e
Hill MM, Hemmings BA (2002) Inhibition of protein kinase B/Akt. implications for cancer therapy. Pharmacol Ther 93:243–251
Houghton PJ, Thimmaiah KN, Easton JB (2006) Substituted phenoxazines and acridones as inhibitors of akt. World patents WO2006094207A2. 2006 Sept 8.
Iman M, Saadabadi A, Davood A (2015) Molecular docking analysis and molecular dynamics simulation study of ameltolide analogous as a sodium channel blocker. Turk J Chem 39:306–316. https://doi.org/10.3906/kim-1402-37
Jadhav PB, Jadhav SB, Zehravi M et al (2023) Virtual screening, synthesis, and biological evaluation of some carbohydrazide derivatives as potential DPP-IV inhibitors. Molecules. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010149
Jansen VM, Mayer IA, Arteaga CL (2016) Is there a future for AKT inhibitors in the treatment of cancer? Clin Cancer Res 22:2599. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-16-0100
Jo Chien A, Tripathy D, Albain KS et al (2020) MK-2206 and standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves response in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive and/or hormone receptor-negative breast cancers in the I-SPY 2 trial. J Clin Oncol 38:1059–1069. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.19
Kelly JX, Smilkstein MJ, Brun R et al (2009) Discovery of dual function acridones as a new antimalarial chemotype. Nature 459:270–273. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07937
Khan SL, Siddiqui FA, Shaikh MS et al (2021) Discovery of potential inhibitors of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of pandemic disease-causing SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein from triphala through molecular docking. Curr Chin Chem. https://doi.org/10.2174/2666001601666210322121802
Kumar R, Kaur M, Bahia MS, Silakari O (2014) Synthesis, cytotoxic study and docking based multidrug resistance modulator potential analysis of 2-(9-oxoacridin-10(9H)-yl)-N-phenyl acetamides. Eur J Med Chem 80:83–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2014.04.030
Mahajan A, Rane R, Amritkar A et al (2015) Synthesis of novel amides based on acridone scaffold with interesting antineoplastic activity. Anticancer Agents Med Chem 15:555–564. https://doi.org/10.2174/1871520614666141130130130
Martorana F, Motta G, Pavone G et al (2021) AKT inhibitors: new weapons in the fight against breast cancer? Front Pharmacol 12:1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.662232
Meepagala KM, Schrader KK, Wedge DE, Duke SO (2005) Algicidal and antifungal compounds from the roots of Ruta graveolens and synthesis of their analogs. Phytochemistry 66:2689–2695. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PHYTOCHEM.2005.09.019
Morgensztern D, McLeod HL (2005) PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway as a target for cancer therapy. Anticancer Drugs 16:797–803. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.cad.0000173476.67239.3b
Mundi PS, Sachdev J, McCourt C, Kalinsky K (2016) AKT in cancer: new molecular insights and advances in drug development. Br J Clin Pharmacol 110:943–956. https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.13021
Murahari M, Prakash KV, Peters GJ, Mayur YC (2017) Acridone-pyrimidine hybrids- design, synthesis, cytotoxicity studies in resistant and sensitive cancer cells and molecular docking studies. Eur J Med Chem 139:961–981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2017.08.023
Qiu B, Guo L, Chen Z et al (2009) Synthesis of N-4-butylamine acridone and its use as fluorescent probe for ctDNA. Biosens Bioelectron 24:1281–1285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2008.07.055
Rajendra Prasad VVS, Deepak Reddy G, Kathmann I et al (2016) Nitric oxide releasing acridone carboxamide derivatives as reverters of doxorubicin resistance in MCF7/Dx cancer cells. Bioorg Chem 64:51–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioorg.2015.11.007
Rappé AK, Casewit CJ, Colwell KS et al (1992) UFF, a full periodic table force field for molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations. J Am Chem Soc 114:10024–10035. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00051a040
Sale E, Hodgkinson C, Jones N, Sale G (2006) Role of protein kinase B in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res 8:P23. https://doi.org/10.1186/bcr1578
Salimon J, Salih N, Yousif E et al (2010) Synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of 9(10H)-acridone bearing 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives as antimicrobial agents. Arab J Chem 3:205–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2010.06.001
San Diego: Accelrys Software Inc. (2012) Discovery Studio Modeling Environment, Release 3.5. Accelrys Softw. Inc.
Sathish NK, Prasad VVSR, Raghavendra NM et al (2009) Synthesis of novel 1,3-diacetoxy-acridones as cytotoxic agents and their DNA-binding studies. Sci Pharm 77:19–32. https://doi.org/10.3797/scipharm.0811-03
Sepúlveda CS, García CC, Fascio ML et al (2012) Inhibition of Junin virus RNA synthesis by an antiviral acridone derivative. Antiviral Res 93:16–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2011.10.007
Shityakov S, Förster C (2014) In silico structure-based screening of versatile P-glycoprotein inhibitors using polynomial empirical scoring functions. Adv Appl Bioinform Chem 7:1–9. https://doi.org/10.2147/AABC.S56046
Siddiqui FA, Khan SL, Marathe RP, Nema NV (2021) Design, synthesis, and in silico studies of novel N-(2-aminophenyl)-2,3-diphenylquinoxaline-6-sulfonamide derivatives targeting receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein and their evaluation as antimicrobial and antimalarial agents. Lett Drug Des Discov 18:915–931. https://doi.org/10.2174/1570180818666210427095203
Singh R, Kumar S, Bhardwaj VK, Purohit R (2022) Screening and reckoning of potential therapeutic agents against DprE1 protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J Mol Liq 358:119101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2022.119101
Song M, Bode AM, Dong Z, Lee MH (2019) AKt as a therapeutic target for cancer. Cancer Res 79:1019–1031. https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-18-2738
Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL et al (2021) Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin 71:209–249. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21660
Tabarrini O, Manfroni G, Fravolini A et al (2006) Synthesis and anti-BVDV activity of acridones as new potential antiviral agents. J Med Chem 49:2621–2627. https://doi.org/10.1021/jm051250z
Unnisa A, Khan SL, Sheikh FAH et al (2021) In-silico inhibitory potential of triphala constituents against cytochrome P450 2E1 for the prevention of thioacetamide-induced hepatotoxicity. J Pharm Res Int. https://doi.org/10.9734/jpri/2021/v33i43a32499
Vichai V, Kirtikara K (2006) Sulforhodamine B colorimetric assay for cytotoxicity screening. Nat Protoc 1:1112–1116. https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2006.179
Wang C, Wan J, Mei Z, Yang X (2014) Acridone alkaloids with cytotoxic and antimalarial activities from Zanthoxylum simullans Hance. Pharmacogn Mag 10:73–76. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-1296.126669
Xing Y, Lin NU, Maurer MA et al (2019) (2019) Phase II trial of AKT inhibitor MK-2206 in patients with advanced breast cancer who have tumors with PIK3CA or AKT mutations, and/or PTEN loss/PTEN mutation. Breast Cancer Res 211(21):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/S13058-019-1154-8
Zhang B, Wang N, Zhang C et al (2017) Novel multi-substituted benzyl acridone derivatives as survivin inhibitors for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment. Eur J Med Chem 129:337–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2017.02.027
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Department of Health Research (DHR), Government of India, New Delhi, Grant/Award Number: no. V.25011/547‐HRD/2016‐HR for providing funding for research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
TTY contributed to the study conduction, synthesis, data collection, analysis and interpretation of results, and draft/manuscript preparation; PDP was involved in the synthesis and data collection; GMS performed the molecular docking and data collection; MSK assisted in the methodology suggestions for biological studies, suggestions, and supervision, writing—reviewing and editing, and critical review of the manuscript; MC reviewed, edited, and critically revised the manuscript; MYC contributed to the conceptual design, reviewing and editing, and approval of the final version. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Research involving human participants and/or animals:
The authors confirm that there is no involvement of human participants and/or animals in conducting research.
Informed consent
Not applicable.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Yadav, T.T., Patil, P.D., Shaikh, G.M. et al. Evaluation of N10-substituted acridone-based derivatives as AKT inhibitors against breast cancer cells: in vitro and molecular docking studies. 3 Biotech 13, 111 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-023-03524-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-023-03524-z